Teaching German

Science

Dear Netherlands: Thank you for the science!

Tulips, cheese and windmills. The Netherlands are so tranquil and traditional - or are they?? Digging just a little deeper reveals that the Netherlands are home to some truly visionary science as well.

Escape from rising water

What to do when you start to sink? Build a new city on the water? In 2009, Dutch designers introduced the concept of floating towns. Research by DeltaSync, a spin-off from Delf University of Technology, suggests that floating structures could hold 15-storey buildings and floating streets.

Meat from the lab

That'll be 305,000 euros ($325,000), please! For a Burger?! Yes, indeed. It was the most expensive burger ever, produced in a lab at Maastricht University in 2013. The meat was grown using bovine stem cells. Some researchers hope the technique will help tackle the world's food problem - if they can reduce the cost!

Or we could eat insects …

When it comes to eating insects, you may feel the same amount of disgust as the amount of protein they contain. For example, 100 grams of crickets contain about 60 grams of protein - chicken has half as much protein. Wageningen University in the Netherlands specializes in the field, even offering workshops on edible insects and how to prepare them.

Creepy canteen

If you don't like crickets … how about mealworms? Wageningen University includes insects on the daily menu. So, pop down to the canteen for a piece of mealworm quiche or a plate of grasshopper spring rolls. Or you can order them direct to your door and feel great: edible insects create less greenhouse gasses than conventional meat production.

Where surveillance is healthcare

De Hogeweyk redefines the meaning of nursing homes. It's a gated village in Weesp, Netherlands. It has a communal square, theater, garden and post office. But the residents are under 24-hour surveillance, with caretakers everywhere in plain clothes, and only one door. Residents live in groups of six or seven to one house.

Modern time piece

It's a village trademark: the 23 houses in De Hogeweyk are furnished to resemble the time in history when the residents lost their short-term memory. The residents are said to need fewer medication, eat better and live longer than people with dementia in other nursing facilities.

European Space Research and Technology Centre

It's huge. In fact, it's the European Space Agency's (ESA) largest site. Based in Noordwijk, ESA says this is "the incubator of all European space endeavor." Whether it's planning space missions, testing satellites, or developing space systems and technologies - it all gets done at ESTEC.

Escape from rising water

What to do when you start to sink? Build a new city on the water? In 2009, Dutch designers introduced the concept of floating towns. Research by DeltaSync, a spin-off from Delf University of Technology, suggests that floating structures could hold 15-storey buildings and floating streets.

Meat from the lab

That'll be 305,000 euros ($325,000), please! For a Burger?! Yes, indeed. It was the most expensive burger ever, produced in a lab at Maastricht University in 2013. The meat was grown using bovine stem cells. Some researchers hope the technique will help tackle the world's food problem - if they can reduce the cost!

Or we could eat insects …

When it comes to eating insects, you may feel the same amount of disgust as the amount of protein they contain. For example, 100 grams of crickets contain about 60 grams of protein - chicken has half as much protein. Wageningen University in the Netherlands specializes in the field, even offering workshops on edible insects and how to prepare them.

Creepy canteen

If you don't like crickets … how about mealworms? Wageningen University includes insects on the daily menu. So, pop down to the canteen for a piece of mealworm quiche or a plate of grasshopper spring rolls. Or you can order them direct to your door and feel great: edible insects create less greenhouse gasses than conventional meat production.

Where surveillance is healthcare

De Hogeweyk redefines the meaning of nursing homes. It's a gated village in Weesp, Netherlands. It has a communal square, theater, garden and post office. But the residents are under 24-hour surveillance, with caretakers everywhere in plain clothes, and only one door. Residents live in groups of six or seven to one house.

Modern time piece

It's a village trademark: the 23 houses in De Hogeweyk are furnished to resemble the time in history when the residents lost their short-term memory. The residents are said to need fewer medication, eat better and live longer than people with dementia in other nursing facilities.

European Space Research and Technology Centre

It's huge. In fact, it's the European Space Agency's (ESA) largest site. Based in Noordwijk, ESA says this is "the incubator of all European space endeavor." Whether it's planning space missions, testing satellites, or developing space systems and technologies - it all gets done at ESTEC.